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Red Rooms (Les Chambres rouges)

Written and directed by Pascal Plante.
Now playing in select US and wide UK theaters.
Utopia

A significant portion of Pascal Plante’s Québécois techno-thriller Red Rooms (which won Best Film at Fantasia 2023) consists of star Juliette Gariépy staring directly into the camera. This works on multiple levels: first, Gariépy’s performance as hyper-intelligent, hyper-disciplined hacker Kelly-Anne is so tightly controlled that even subtle facial movements tell us a lot about her character’s emotions (such as they are—Kelly-Anne is cold and affectless, implying some form of psychopathy).

Beyond a character study, however, Gariépy’s intense gaze also interrogates the viewer, challenging our interest in the film’s morbid and salacious subject matter. Actappalled writes that it “primarily is a profound critique of true crime obsessives (or, maybe, the true crime genre as a whole) and how the sensationalism of the media’s portrayal of fucked up murderous lunatics essentially renders them celebrities.” Indeed, Red Rooms engages unblinkingly with the most unsettling aspects of the genre, dividing its narrative into the trial of accused serial killer Ludovic Chevalier (Maxwell McCabe-Lokos) and Kelly-Anne’s parallel investigation into Chevalier’s network of “red rooms” where he live-streamed torture and murder on the dark web.

The snuff film aspect is provocative enough. But Plante further complicates Red Rooms by incorporating serial killer “groupies” like country girl Clémentine (Laurie Babin) and, presumably, Kelly-Anne into the narrative. Without saying too much, Kelly-Anne’s motivations eventually become clear, and trying to untangle her inscrutable actions—reflected in the chilly, precise filmmaking, which implies much but shows little—is half of the story’s fascination. “It’s impressive how horrifying this movie is even though it shows very little of actual horror, just a few quick images here and there,” Marianna says. “The horror comes from the subject matter, the sound design (think hearing a thing happening rather than seeing it), the score, the things we’re being told, the implications, and it’s all so damn effective.” KR